From hearth to furnace : evidences for the earliest metal smelting technologies in the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

The first controlled use of fire in metallurgy dates from the eighth millennium ВС, when native copper was deliberately heated to form artifacts. Problems how to distinguish between native copper and smelted copper are addressed, especially what concerns the role of iron in copper. It is shown that the technological roots of metallurgy have nothing in common with pottery kilns. Metallurgy is an independent development. The decisive factor was the introduction of charcoal that was important to produce reducing conditions during firing. The earliest stages in metallurgy are represented by a non-slagging process. Reduction of ores was carried out in crucibles as exemplified by finds from Anatolia, Iran, Jordan, and the Iberian Peninsula. Special attention is paid to the putative early stages of metallurgy claimed to exist at Timna. The so-called Neolithic and Chalcolithic copper smelting there is critically discussed in the light of radio carbon data. Wind-powered furnaces played a major role in Early Bronze Age copper metallurgy, as exemplified by sites in the Feinan-area, in Wadi Dara, Egypt, and at numerous sites in the Aegean. Later, artificial air supply by bellows and tuyeres was introduced.